"I run with Milk and take orders from him. I will follow you to hell- you know that, Milk! I will get our shit ready to get the fuck out of here. Just give me the order."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:35, Sat 13 Sept 2008.

Tucker looks for a place to lean or sit down on the deck where all of this 'good news' is being passed on.  He takes out one of his cigars and lights it up taking a deep pull off of it.  "Go on the run again or go down river and be arrested?  Some fucking choice.  Well, I signed on with you as a security person Captain, I guess I'm staying for the ride no matter how short this may be for us.  With all due respect Clarence, I'm staying with the tug."

Ondar shrugs at the Hauptmann's death threat as though he already considered it a given outcome.

"If may suggest," he begins to explain, "There is town west on main road to Radom.  Zwolen.  Twenty kilometer.  Small garrison there, maybe one, two squad conscripts.  But have motor pool there and also supply depot to maintain patrol.  Locals supporting NATO.  Partisans stay there last winter.  Maybe still there.  It good place to steal transport.  Or hide - wait for this blow over."

He raises an eyebrow and turns back to Bayer.

"Or maybe it trap and you get shoot me anyway."

"If that is the only command authority you recognize, then perhaps you should go. There are no rogue elements in this group. If you disagree then you should get your shit and leave now as you suggested, and not return." Bayer snaps.



Bayer can't hide his genuinely amused smile... he was glad that the man had at least thought of the potential consequences. "Ok. Then we have profitable options then, good."

"Anyone else know about this town?" he says.

Quyen enters the bridge, and looks the man over. With the others focused on talking about the town, she nods to Ondar and says neutrally, "Hello."

With the focus on working out a plan, she uses the time to question Ondar. Keeping her attention focused on his unconscious mannerisms Quyen asks him "How do you know of this town, and what goes on there?"

Once answered, she proceeds to inquire about his motivations to defect, how he deserted and came to be with the refugees, how he knew to find us, how he was knowledgeable about the extent of the details he had of the enemy strengths, and other pertinent (and non-pertinent like his rank and where he was from) questions. Quyen studies how he answers them, and listens to any cross examined questions to see if he gives any contradictory information. She listens to sense if his answers are forced, or sound as if rehearsed, or do they come naturally. She watches his eyes and hands closely.

Quyen pays closer attention to how he answers, rather what he answers. It isn't an interrogation to gain information... as she's only really interested in determining if he is telling a fabricated story.

Hearing that his sister was dead, Dawid felt a crushing weight descend on him, tears formed in his eyes.

"Dead? Shit. There's no reason for me to go on now."

But of course it was all-too possible. People died all the time in Poland, this was the "Second Deluge", a wholesale slaughter of everyone and everything. There was no hope, no reason to continue from battle to battle, cursed to walk the blighted Earth like the Roman soldier who pierced Christ's side with his lance as the Saviour was nailed to the cross.

He put his head in his hands and wept.

Called back from the bunker, Jason arrives at the bridge in time to hear mention of Zwolen.  When Konrad asks for more information on the town, he replies, "Mariusz would know more about it; his group stayed there over the winter.  He mentioned to me it would be a nice place to bury the Brother."

He glances over at Minh for the first time since last night.  His eyes go wide as he takes in the bandage on her arm.  It takes all his willpower not to rush over to her as he recognizes she is in 'professional mode,' talking to the fellow from the barge.  "What the hell happened to Minh's arm?" he whispers to Tucker.  "And why did nobody tell me about it?"  He had heard about Stoner getting shot, but not Minh.  He was getting mightily sick of being sequestered in the bunker on the barge.

Mariusz finished off-loading the rations and then headed back onto the tug. He looked at the serious faces on the bridge and sighed, something didn't look good.

"Come here David; let's go and talk let the rest here decide our future...."

"German, calm down; don't get your panties in a bunch. I'm an American soldier so I follow orders from them. That's what I meant. I know you are in command of this mission and I have followed your orders 100%. But if my guy leaves, I must under my country's rules follow his orders. It's nothing bad towards you, just the rules; and as a German you must respect that."

If David comes, Sam will put on his senior NCO hat and start to talk to David about life and the purpose of carrying on and how his country needs him and how his sister would not want him to quit and that she would be mad at him if he did. He will also talk about how the crew needs him with his skill on the heavy weapons and Sam will give the Pole a shoulder to cry on and keep the positive reinforcement up until David returns to a somewhat normal state.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:27, Sat 13 Sept 2008.

Some time after the meeting was over McCoy let it be known he was making himself available to talk, and because Dawid was a talkative soul he obliged him.

Dawid seemed a little more cheered up afer, but understandably his spirits still seemed crushed. When "serving his country" came up he looked like he wanted to say more about the subject, but held back, instead just smoking a cigarette and looking out over the water.

Bayer nods an understanding to McCoy, "Alright, I get you." he says.

When Mariusz enters, Bayer softly grabs his arm and pulls him over. He then says, "Zwolen. Tell me about it. When were you there last?" As Mariusz answers, he unfolds his map to help create his own mental picture.

"Zwolen, it's about 20 kilometers away from here on the road to Radom. I was there with my unit over last winter. The people are sympathetic to the partisan cause, but there's a government garrison there to help keep the road open and supply the patrols that run between Radom and Lublin. The garrison was pretty lax when we were there, a dozen or more conscripts, mainly they guarded the supply dump and kept things nice for the patrols which passed through and sometimes stayed overnight. Why?" Mariusz asked.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:53, Sat 13 Sept 2008.

"We may be going there." he says.

"How often did patrols go through? What kind of supply dump? Whats the ground like around the town... easy for a dozen men to get in close?"

Tucker takes another pull off of his cigar and exhale's it before he answers Jason's questions about Minh.  "Minh took one in the arm when we got ambushed on shore with me, McCoy, and Stoner.  Stoner got the worst of it and took one to the dome!  I didn't know you were he next of kin contact or else we would've called you right away!"

"Ha ha.  Very funny," Jason replies.  "I mean, the word got passed about Stoner getting hit, but no mention of the identity of the other wounded.  I suppose that, and the fact she's walking around, means it's not very serious.  It just would have been nice to hear that up front.  It's awfully isolated up there."

As options are layed out on the table, Adam speaks up, his gravelly voice cracking with emotion,

"I will go to Warsaw, with or without the Wisla Krolowa."

He heaves a heavy sigh and continues in a quiet, measured tone,

"We have burned too many bridges to hope for a return to Krakow. There is no turning back for me."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:48, Sat 13 Sept 2008.

Clarence stares out of the bridge window, deep in thought. He watches the refugees milling about on the barge below. A line has formed to a tent on its deck aft. He sees Anneka emerge briefly through the flap, welcoming an old woman into what be a makeshift infirmary.

His head swings around to face the others present on the cramped bridge.

"What about the refugee barge?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:46, Sat 13 Sept 2008.

"Well," Mariusz began, "the last time I was there, which was about eight months ago,the garrison consisted of about a platoon or so of garrison troops and a small motor pool. The motor pool had access to a Soviet-made MBT recovery vehicle and a few trucks. Their job was, and probably still is, to pick up and fix convoy vehicles that broke down between Pulawy and Radom. There were usually half a dozen vehicles in various states of repair in the town.

The garrison troops sent out daily squads to patrol a few km down the main road in both directions. The patrols often went out on bicycle.

Convoys between Lublin and Radom went out on a weekly basis. The average was two per week. One was usually purely military, supplies, replacement personel, and so on, and the other is usually mercantile. They almost always stopped in town for at least a couple of hours.

The farm we wintered in is a couple of klicks away from town, off the main road. A dirt road links it to the MSR. The garrison patrolled but once in a blue moon so that's why the we felt safe staying there.

The landscape is pretty flat an open- mostly farmland, some of it still under cultivation. At night, if we were careful, we could probably get pretty close."

"Good info Mariusz." Bayer replies.

"Alright. Is anyone not convinced assessing the situation at Zwolen is our best... and only real option at this point?" he asks aloud. "I don't know what to do about the cargo here, but I see Zwolen's transportation as something that can be done."

"Milk, you are our comms man. See to Ondar about those frequencies and lets setup a listening watch over the radio." he adds.

Bayer passes a glance over to Quyen and nods his head towards Ondar.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:52, Sun 14 Sept 2008.

Griet thought about Tucker's question, "It's also a possibility to explore. I assume you're suggesting that we swap craft and do some work on making the motorbarge look different? It's a tall order but is worth discussing." She also thought about Zwolen, "Scouting it out to see if an attack is feasible will o no harm. Most vehicles there may be in poor repair, but the motor pool must have some wheeled transport of their own that we could use. Mariusz, would Zwolen be a potential safe haven for these refugees?"

"Is nice they send such pretty girl for make chat."  Ondar smiles at Minh as she conducts her interview.  He appears congenial and sincere enough, however it soon becomes obvious to the MP that she is dealing with an operative well trained in the arts of resistance and verbal self defense.

"Is your job suspect Ondar.  Is okay - Ondar not offend.  Ondar know what Ondar know because it job to know.  RESET worst kept secret in whole Western Theatre.  If not your own CIA and DIA infighting then is KGB and GRU deathmatch to recover.  Israelis in-country too, also French.  If China think could get hands on they probably also make grab at.  Poles not be left out either.  For me, I until recent loan out to GRU in Lublin."

He goes on to detail that he was born in the Tuvinskaya Autonomous Region of the Soviet Union to a family of semi-nomadic yak herders.  He was conscripted into the Red Army when he came of draft age and - although new to the Western TVD - claims to have served a career spanning over twenty years with distinction in Afghanistan, China and Norway.  He explains his contract status as a senior warrant in the Soviet special forces.  The only break in his professional veneer appears when fielding the question as to his motivation for desertion.

"That ... complicated."  He diverts his eyes and dwells for a moment in the contents of his coffee mug before sipping.  "Tragic story not time for tell.  Suffice it say puppets of state betray Ondar.  Ondar return favor ..."

His voice trails off.  Then, as if he just remembered something, he reaches cautiously into a pocket in his field jacket and produces a rubber-banded stack of documents appearing to be mostly identity papers, travel documents operational orders and a code book.  He drops them on the chart table and slides the stack toward Minh.

"I think you'll find," he declares in crystal clear accentless English evocative of The Duke Himself John Wayne, "My credentials are impeccable."

He chuckles to himself.

"Ondar say that in twelve langauges.  As for refugees, they just in right place at right time."  He waves his hand.  "You not hard to find."

Ondar stops and studies Minh's face with a clinical interest.

"You not Chinese.  What then?  Thai?  Viet?  Not Lao, I bet.  Is okay you still suspicious.  Trust come in time.  Ondar not worry."

Griet felt her heart weigh heavily in her chest. Her father was insisting on continuing his quest like some deluded knight in a Cervantes novel and somehow, Milk, the CIA operative had gotten caught up in the romance of it all. Combining the journey to Warsaw with the transit of the Operation RESET papers was suicide for both parties.

Whilst the tug had been a viable alternative, the partnership had been feasible, now it was bordering on stupid. At best, they'd be a long column of soft-skinned vehicles pushing down the only roads to Warsaw and waiting to be butchered by the Government Forces. Even if they were able to salvage the heavy weapons from the boat they'd be in trouble as individual trucks were less immune to fire than the tug and they wouldn't be able to concentrate their fire the way they had on the river. She sighed, it was bordering on hopeless, but if her father wouldn't give in, she had to make the best of it.

"OK," she said, "if we are going to scout out Zwolen, this is what we'll need at a minimum: trucks with enough capacity to shift thirty tonnes of goods, any combination of tonnage will do but the bigger the better as we'll need fewer drivers. Ideally we'll also need a few lighter vehicles for scouting and defence as well as enough fuel carrying capacity for 200 kilometers of travel. Add to that the ideal need for more empty trucks to transport the refugees when we reach Warsaw. Thinking about it, we might consider hiring on drivers from the fugees here, we'll be spread horribly thin otherwise. Once we have the vehicles, we'll need several hours to load them and put the defensive weaponry on them, say three to four hours. That means there can be no survivors from the garrison and no messages out from it or we'll be asking for a counter-attack, it won't take a genius to put two and two together and send out scouting forces to locate us. From my perspective, at best we get lucky and survive long enough to get hit somewhere on the road to Warsaw, at worst, we'll die here."

"Well, if I could throw my piece in here? I say we take a little time and think about things. Let's spend a few hours here helping these people and doing repairs for them. Let's also as single people come up with two COA's for the good captain here. Then, we brief him in a group setting with no fighting or sniping; then as a group we decide what COA we like the best and then we execute it as a team with a mission in mind, not as ten single people going in ten different directions. Not all is lost- this is a blessing. To have intel in today's world is rare and we have some. We could still complete our mission and help these people out and not die- all good things in my book. So what do you say meet back here in two or three hours and brief?"

Sam will await replies.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:42, Sun 14 Sept 2008.

Mariusz listened carefully to McCoy and then raised his hand, "So you want each of us to come up with two different coas, whatever they are and then tell the Captain all of them, or do we decide on one and then brief the Captain? If we are going to decide on a "coa", how do we do that without actually discussing things? I don't see any fighting here, just discussions and opinions."

"You come up with your idea on how to do things. One or two options- you decide. Then you brief the German captain. We do this a couple of hours from now. He is the commander. Once he decides what we do then he briefs the ship's captain and we go from there in a unifed command with a purpose. This is an easy, simple way to do things. I have my plan now. You make yours; we all brief then we go from there.

"Understand my son? I have been lacking here in your education. It's my fault. Once we decide whats going on, come and talk to me and we start your training in the arts of war.

"David, let's go and talk some more. I have some things I want to share with you."

Sam will walk off with David if he comes and will talk more about his loss.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:44, Sun 14 Sept 2008.